Contents

Vietnam War

In his autobiography, Powell said he is haunted by the nightmare of the Vietnam War and felt that the leadership was very ineffective. When Tom Glen, a young specialist fourth class, wrote a letter to his superiors alleging "routine brutality against civilians", Major Powell wrote back that "There may be isolated cases of mistreatment of civilians and POWs... [but] this by no means reflects the general attitude throughout the Division.” Without interviewing Glen, he claimed that U.S. soldiers in Vietnam were taught to treat the Vietnamese courteously and respectfully, noting that US troops also had gone through an hour-long course on how to treat prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions.[1]

Normalization of terror

Colin Powell said after the 1998 United States embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, that “[Terrorism] is the cost of doing business and it's not just something that can happen overseas but, as this community knows better than anyone, it can happen here... I think there are limits to what you can do in a free society.”[2]

9/11

Iraq War

In September 2015, Colin Powell defended the decision to go to war in Iraq even though it was based on faulty intelligence about the existence of weapons of mass destruction. The war had become a flashpoint in the 2016 US presidential election, with every contender criticising the move and those in office at the time distancing themselves from their votes in support of it.

It became a particular challenge for former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who faced added pressure to disavow the invasion because it was spearheaded by his brother, former President George W. Bush. Powell told NBC's Meet the Press:

"If we had known the intelligence was wrong, we would not have gone into Iraq. But the intelligence community, all 16 agencies, assured us that it was right."[5]